Political Notebook: Staffer's arrest on porn charges has lawmakers scrambling for distance

In this image taken from video and released by WJLA TV, U.S. Postal police walk with Ryan Loskarn, center, chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, in Washington D.C. Alexander replaced his chief of staff after learning the staffer's home was being searched as part of a child pornography investigation.

When news broke Wednesday that Sen. Lamar Alexander's chief of staff, Ryan Loskarn, had been walked out of his home in Washington by law enforcement officials on suspicion that he had bought and distributed child pornography, Alexander moved quickly to fire him and express disgust publicly.

"I am stunned, surprised and disappointed by what I have learned," he said in a news release announcing that he was placing Loskarn on administrative leave without pay.

By the end of the day, Loskarn had been fired. Later, after the horrifying case against him was laid out by federal officials in a legal document, Alexander put out another statement.

"The courts will determine his guilt or innocence, but the information in the complaint is repugnant and disturbing," the second statement read.

The other Tennessee lawmaker for whom Loskarn had worked, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, also released a statement on the matter.

"I am shocked, saddened and stunned by these allegations," said Blackburn, who had employed Loskarn between 2003 and 2007.

The stream of adjectives from Alexander and Blackburn was clearly meant to put distance between such a horrifying story and the elected officials Loskarn worked for.

Politicians are, not surprisingly, political creatures. It's natural to expect them to put out statements when news like this emerges, worried that voters will hold it against them.

It's also true that we in the media reach out to them immediately and ask them to comment, so they're trying to be responsive to us, too.

But it would be grossly unfair to hold them accountable for the terrible personal decisions someone working on their staff might have made. Unless they had an earlier inkling and ignored it, this isn't about them.

So of course we will think about whether this kind of news will trouble Tennessee voters, and we'll look for evidence that it does. But our assumption going in will be that fair-minded Tennesseans, although they might be disturbed by the story, are going to put it in its proper place.

- Scott Stroud

Ballpark stances are profiles in caution

Perhaps fearing the ramifications when they seek re-election to the General Assembly next year, the two Metro Council members who also serve as Democratic state representatives declined to vote for the $65 million financing of a new baseball stadium Tuesday.

But they did it in different ways.

Bo Mitchell, who once was close to Mayor Karl Dean's administration but has clashed with it over charter schools, which he frequently criticizes, voted against the deal to build a new ballpark for the Nashville Sounds. Darren Jernigan, who is likely to face a challenge in November from former state Rep. Jim Gotto, the Republican he defeated last year, simply didn't vote at all.

But Jernigan, who abstained on each of the three pieces of ballpark-related legislation, insisted that politics played no role in his failure to push a button whenever it came time to vote.

"I couldn't make up my mind," he said.

Jernigan said the constituents he heard from were split on the issue. He said he could have stayed home Tuesday, but he attended the council meeting because he thought he might hear something to persuade him one way or the other.

Dean introduced the deal on Nov. 11. The bill to issue $65 million in municipal bonds passed on a 29-7 vote last week, and the other ballpark bills passed by even wider margins.

- Michael Cass

Dems launch pre-emptive strike on ALEC

The American Legislative Exchange Council met in Washington recently, and Democrats in Tennessee and elsewhere want to be sure everyone knows it.

Organizing for Action, the successor group to President Barack Obama's campaign, put together a press conference in Legislative Plaza in a bid to call attention to ALEC, an organization for conservative state lawmakers that has drawn fire for the "model bills" it gives to its members to take home to their statehouses.

Tennessee's chapter of OFA described its event as the "Sportsmen for Climate Action Press Conference" and promised to offer the details on "climate denier" legislation being promoted by ALEC. There were no sportsmen, so instead two Nashville Democrats - state Reps. Sherry Jones and Mike Stewart - did the deed of ripping into ALEC.

"Once again this front group, ALEC, is planning to unleash a wave of bad legislation in Tennessee," Stewart said. "It's important for the people of Tennessee to understand ? these bills just weren't thought up here by Tennesseans in this plaza but rather were drafted in corporate board rooms far from Tennessee, handed over to this front group ALEC and then handed over to the people of Tennessee in the form of bills."

Despite the scattershot planning, the press conference was part of a fairly sophisticated national public relations campaign put together by Democratic-leaning groups to throw a spotlight on their foes. Similar events were held in other statehouses, protesters gathered at ALEC's meeting place in D.C., and a report published by the Guardian newspaper purports to show the state-by-state agenda of conservative groups.

Up in D.C., Tennessee lawmakers who attended the ALEC conference shrugged off all the attention. State Rep. Ryan Haynes, R-Knoxville, told the News Sentinel the group offers ideas but lawmakers don't parrot their arguments.

"Do we necessarily take the (model) bill back word for word? No," Haynes said. "And I don't think it would be wise to do that. But obviously, there have been a great many ideas that have come from here."

- Chas Sisk

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Political Notebook: Staffer's arrest on porn charges has lawmakers scrambling for distance

Political news and notes from throughout Tennessee and Washington and throughout.